Throughout the United States steps are being taken to improve the bathing of animals, and in particular to provide an automatic system to bathe animals and reduce the associated labor cost. This problem is becoming particularly acute with the inexorable rise of labor costs required in operating a kennel. The cost to bathe an animal daily must be passed on to the owners of the animals and in many cases, the owners are priced out of supplying the proper kennel facilities for their animals while they are on vacation or traveling or the like.
Additionally, many pet owners have difficulty bathing small animals such as dogs in an environment without having water sprayed all over the surrounding walls when the animal shakes itself vigorously to get rid of the water during the washing and rinsing of the animal. Pet owners know full well the mess that the dog can generate if he or she does not like to be bathed on a regular basis.
Many attempts at providing an automated system for washing and rinsing and drying an animal in an enclosed space have been made. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,020,796 issued to Grifa discloses a portable animal bathing apparatus having a boxlike structure in a network of perforated spray pipes interiorly disposed.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,056,078 issued to Blafford et al. discloses a dog cleaning apparatus having two enclosures and a common interior sidewall. Patent '078 discloses a water spray head in a first enclosure and a plurality of air ducts for drying the animal in the second enclosure adjacent thereto.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,057,032 issued to Dimitriadis discloses a dog bathing apparatus having an adjustable frame structure and an aperture for the head of the animal to protrude from the forward wall. Patent '032 has a plurality of water spray discharge pipes and a bottom drain pan to remove the wash water.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,505,229 issued to Altissimo discloses an automatic washing machine for dogs and other animals having a cylindrical casing and an aperture in one end for the head of an animal. The casing includes a plurality of spray nozzles within the housing to wash and dry the animal.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,987,860 issued to Davis discloses a small animal bath for domestic pets.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,193,487 issued to Vogel discloses a pet bathing apparatus having a tub, a towel and a series of accessories.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,243,931 issued to McDonough discloses an animal washing apparatus having a tub and an open roof. The animal is covered with a resilient sheeting material prior to the commencement of the washing cycle. Further, patent '931 discloses a plurality of timers and other controls and a shower head to wash the animal.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,279,257 issued to Timby discloses a portable pet washing apparatus having a transparent roof with an aperture for the dogs head and additional aperture for the person to insert their hands through and wash the animal.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,549,502 issued to Namdari discloses an apparatus having a plurality of adjustable movable brushes and a plurality of spray heads located within an enclosure. Patent '502 has a mechanism for measuring and controlling the supply of warm water to the spray heads and also has a mechanism for moving the brushes to scrub and clean the animal.
None of these previous efforts, however, provide the benefits intended with the present invention. Additionally, prior techniques do not suggest, the present inventive combination of component elements as disclosed and claimed herein. The present invention achieves its intended purposes, objectives and advantages over the prior art devices through a new, useful and unobvious combination of component elements, which is simple to use, with the utilization of a minimum number of functioning parts, at a reasonable cost to manufacture, assemble, test and by employing only readily available material.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a system to clean an animal automatically in an enclosure including a washing and rinsing and drying cycle, all accomplished in the same enclosure. It is a further object of the invention to provide a system that is impervious to water or soap or warm air.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a system with proper controls to preclude any possibility of scalding the animal.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide a system for washing and rinsing and drying an animal that discharges washing water, rinsing water and hot air to all surfaces of the animal's body, including the interior portion of the hind and front legs and the underside of the animal's body.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide a system that is self-cleaning and requires no external purging of the piping network to maintain the system in top operating condition.
It is still another object of the invention to provide a system with a means to allow the animal's head and neck to protrude from the enclosure to avoid terrorizing the animal during the cleaning cycle.
It is another object of the invention to provide a system that will trap and direct all of the water used during the cycle including that water used to wash the protruding neck and head portion of the animal into a common drain.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide a system that allows the animal to maintain a comfortable stance with the legs being properly separated during the entire cleaning cycle.
It is still another object of the invention to provide a system that will accommodate a neck and head portion of the animal, regardless of the size of the animal and have means to releasably engage and secure the neck to eliminate any water being sprayed accidently through the aperture.
A final object of this invention to be specifically enumerated herein is to provide an automatic animal washing system in accordance with the preceding objects and which will conform to conventional forms of manufacture, be of simple construction and easy to use so as to provide a device that would be economically feasible, long lasting and relatively trouble free in operation.
Although there have been many inventions related to automatic animal washing systems, none of the inventions have become sufficiently compact, low cost and reliable enough to become commonly used. The present invention meets the requirements of the simplified design, compact size, low initial cost, low operating cost, ease of installation and maintainability, and minimal amount of training to successfully employ the invention.
The foregoing has outlined some of the more pertinent objects of the invention. These objects should be construed to be merely illustrative of some of the more prominent features and applications of the intended invention. Many other beneficial results can be obtained by applying the disclosed invention in a different manner or modifying the invention within the scope of the disclosure. Accordingly, other objects and a fuller understanding of the invention may be had by referring to the summary of the invention and the detailed description of the preferred embodiments in addition to the scope of the invention defined by the claims taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.